captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> lehrer: good evening. i'm jim lehrer. the news on unemployment today delivered a two-part message

about the economy-- the nation's jobless rate fell to its lowest level in 19 months, but employers hired fewer new workers than expected. >> woodruff: and i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, we talk to two people who follow the job market about what the latest numbers say about the recovery. >> lehrer: then, fred de sam lazaro reports on a town in south sudan preparing for next week's vote on independence. >> woodruff: ray suarez profiles one of the new members of the republican majority in the house, ohio's jim renacci. >> it was easy for me to step up to the plate. i'm concerned for mire children and grandchildren, can't keep spending ourselves into the debt situation we have right now. >> lehrer: mark shields and david brooks analyze the week's news. >> woodruff: from port-au- prince, jeffrey brown previews his coming stories about haiti, one year after the massive earthquake. >> thing-- from the minute you get out of the airport there is still the very large tent camp that you see

and as you travel around the city you see from all over the place. >> lehrer: and we have a story from louisiana public broadcasting about testing oysters after the oil spill. that's all ahead on tonight's newshour. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> auto companies make huge profits. >> last year, chevron made a lot of money. >> where does it go? >> every penny and more went into bringing energy to the world. >> the economy is tough right now, everywhere. >> we pumped $21 million into local economies, into small businesses, communities, equipment, materials. >> that money could make a big difference to a lot of people. >> this was me-- best ribs in nelson county. but i wasn't winning any ribbons managing my diabetes. it was so complicated. there was a lot of information out there, but it was

frustrating trying to get the answers i needed. then, my company partnered with united healthcare. they provided on-site screenings, healthy cooking tips. that's a recipe i'm keeping. >> turning complex data into easy tools. we're 78,000 people looking out for 70 million americans. that's health in numbers. united healthcare. bnsf railway. and the william and flora hewlett foundation, working to solve social and environmental problems at home and around the world. and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: the u.s. economy added jobs in december, and the unemployment rate dropped.

but the newest numbers from the federal department of labor also fell short in some important ways. for american workers, the jobs report was decidedly a good news/bad news story. on unemployment, the good news was the rate dropped from 9.8% to 9.4%. that was the lowest it's been in 19 months. the bad news-- the drop was mainly because so many people stopped searching for work, so they were no longer counted as unemployed. likewise on job creation-- employers added 103,000 new positions in december, nearly all of them in the private sector. but it takes 125,000 just to meet population growth. the number would have to be twice that large to make a real dent in unemployment. the chairman of the federal reserve, ben bernanke, underscored the point at a

senate hearing this morning. >> the economic recovery that began a year and a half ago is continuing, although, to date, at a pace that has been insufficient to reduce the rate of unemployment significantly. at this rate of improvement, it could take four to five more years for the job market to normalize fully. >> woodruff: today's report did show the economy generated 70,000 more jobs than first estimated in october and november. but bernanke said the large pool of the long-term unemployed remains cause for concern. >> roughly 40% of the unemployed have been out of work for six months or more. long-term unemployment not only imposes exceptional hardships on the jobless and their families, but it also erodes the skills of those workers and may inflict lasting damage on their employment and earnings prospects. >> woodruff: for his part, president obama gave an upbeat assessment as he toured a window manufacturing plant in landover, maryland, just outside washington.

>> the trend is clear. we saw 12 straight months of private sector job growth. that's the first time that's been true since 2006. the economy added 1.3 million jobs last year. and each quarter was stronger than the previous quarter, which means that the pace of hiring is beginning to pick up. >> woodruff: the president also named four new members of his economic team. gene sperling, a clinton administration veteran, was tapped for director of the national economic council. jason furman will be assistant to the president for economic policy. the president also nominated heather higginbottom to be deputy budget director, and katharine abraham for the council of economic advisers. those two positions are subject to senate confirmation. in response, john boehner, the new republican speaker of the

house, issued a statement saying americans aren't looking for new faces, but new policies to cut spending and grow the economy. for a deeper look into just what today's jobs numbers reveal, we turn to catherine mann, professor of economics and finance at brandeis university; and john challenger, chief executive officer of the outplacement firm challenger, gray, and christmas, which recently surveyed people out of work for extended periods. thank you batt for talking with us, to you first, as you look at these numbers, what strikes you,s what a most important here? >> well, you know, i was ready to cheer when i saw the unemployment rate, when i first looked at the numbers this morning going down to 9.4%. and it was only when we started looking at the underpinnings that it sort of became far more nuanced. it is a problem that the bulk of the improvement has

come from people who have left the labor force. primarily men who have left the labor force and are no longer looking for work. and so that's why the unemployment rate fell so much. now there are some bright spots. the nature of the job creation, leisure and hospitality, one can argue that people are feelinging a little bit better about their pocketbook that they're willing to go out for dinner, they're willing to go for a weekend away. health is a very strong sector as well. maybe some of those procedures that were put aside because of concerns about leaving work for any period of time, maybe those have been alleviated somewhat. so there are some bright pictures but generally speaking, when that many people leave the labor force, when our labor force participation rate, in other words, the number of people who are actually out there looking for work is at a 26 year low you've got to wonder about the state of the economy. >> why are so many people giving up looking?

>> well, one reason why a number of people gave up in december was they thought that their unemployment benefits would be tapped out. that there would not be an extension of the unemployment benefits. and if you are's not goinging to get a benefit from saying that you're unemployed than why put yourself through that. you have to go into the office and say you're looking for a job and that sort of thing. so it's possible that the return to the extension of unemployment benefits that was voted in will actually lead to in january more people lookinging for work, which is a good thing, hopefully they will find jobs. and perhaps even stable unemployment rate. in addition, the other part of the program that was put forward in the legislation was this reduction in the payroll tax that employers have to pay when they hire somebody new. so that their new hires will have this reduction in

unemployment and payroll taxes and that could also support employment going forward. >> now john challenger, your initial take you told us on these numbers not as discouraging to you as they were to catherine mann. >> so often in this period of time we are coming out of a recession, now in a very difficult recovery process t seems like every piece of news is interpreted negatively, pessimistically. and think about it we saw unemployment take a brig drop, 9.8 to 9.4%. we saw the previous two months revise upward-- upwards. that's always a positive sign in tough times, those numbers are revised downwards and we've had a series of very positive pieces of news. we saw downsizing in 2010 at its lowest ebb since 1997. we saw the adp report come out with very strong job creation numbers, certainly another look at the economy and we've seen jobless claims numbers now in the last month of december come down below 400,000 for the

first time in a long time so there are a lot of things happening, it seems like we're never going to come out of it or never get back to where we were before. >> and we did hear catherine just say that not since the great depression have we seen unemployment rates stay this high for so long. your firm as we just said has been interviewing or surveying people out of work for a long time. tell us some of what you found. >> well, many of those people have had very tough times finding work, getting their foot back in the door so now what's happening is they are going back and taking part-time jobs. they're exploring whether or not they even do volunteer work to show, put something on their resume that suggests they've been taking this period of time to add to their skills. it might be going back to school but they are certainly frustrated.

one of the big, really aftermaths of this process, this recession we've been in is there are a lot of people. this segment of people who have been stuck during their unemployment period not able to find a job and hopefully that's now beginning to change. >> catherine manning how does that square with what you are seeing in the numbers and your study over time of unemployment? >> well, we have seen that the number of people who have been unemployed for more than six months is now a higher share of the unemployed than ever before. so it is very important for those workers to try to show that they retained skills, maybe gaining new skills. and so to the extent that they've gone off and done volunteer work or really anything that they request put on their resume, that's a very important way of showing that you continue to be attached to the workforce. so on the one hand it's a good thing to do.

on the other hand of course these worker was much rather have a full-time job doing the things that they were doing before. there are a number of reasons for why we have this very sticky unemployment rate that's been so high. it's not just the state of the economy. but some of it also has to do with with the difficulties of people moving. if you have a house that's underwater or you can't sell it, then it's going to be very difficult for to you move to a place where you might be able to get a job. and in addition if you are not really sure about that job the last thing you're going to do is move and put yourself in a situation where you may not have a support structure around you. skills mismatched being another component of that. age being a third element that may make it more difficult for people to get back into the labor force. >> and john challenger, you're talking to employers all the time. one of the other things we hear is that employers, many of them are feeling they can get by with fewer employees. that lean and mean is the

way to go. and there's no, in the near term there's no reason for them to do it any other way. >> well, certainly it's one of the things employers learn how to do during a recession. they cut workers. they add technology and we've seen technology go up in 2010. so they learn to deal with it what happens is they hire temporary workers which we've seen growing, those job creation numbers really growing to meet the added demand as the period of recovery begins to move on. it's certainly very possible. it has happened in past recessions. maybe there's a structural change but it looks like they will start to convert those temporary workers into full-time workers. we are hearing a lot of frustration from people, these long-term unemployed that what happens to these employers is they go out and look for jobs, is they've got people who have just come not job market and people out this for a while aunld things being equal they end up choosing the employers, the people who are newer in the market. so working on how to help the people who have been

caught in this recession, been out for a long time, get back on their feet. it's a creation part of the policy we have to address going forward. >> all right. catherine mann, john challengers, we thank you both. >> thank you. >> lehrer: still to come on the newshour: preparing for the independence vote in sudan; a new republican voice in washington; shields and brooks; haiti one year after the earthquake; and the safety of gulf coast oysters. but first, the other news of the day. here's kwame holman. >> holman: wall street drifted lower today, partly over disappointment with the jobs report. and bank stocks were hurt when the top court in massachusetts voided home foreclosures by wells fargo and u.s. bancorp. the dow jones industrial average lost 22 points to close at 11,674. the nasdaq fell six points to close at 2,703. for the week, the dow gained

just under 1%; the nasdaq rose nearly 2%. the new republican majority in the house has begun moving toward trying to repeal the health care reform law. the rule for next week's debate was approved today, almost entirely along party lines. democrats argued repeal would hurt millions of americans, while republicans insisted they'll come up with something better. >> gop used to stand for grand old party. now it stands for grandma's out of prescriptions. the republicans don't care repeal shows they don't care about sick children with medical bills pushing faemings into bankruptcy. they don't care about grandma and grandpa who need help paying for prescription drugs. >> all the attention is focused on the fact that we are going to be trying to kill good provisions that are out there. madame speaker, we want to start with a clean slate. we going to repeal president obama's job-killing

health-care bill and replace it with real solutions. >> holman: a final house vote on the health care repeal is set for wednesday. but it's not expected to go anywhere in the democratic- controlled senate. president obama signed a bill that transferred locking detainees to the u.s. but the president attached a statement saying he will work to overturn that provision. he called it a dangerous and unprecedented challenge to executive branch authority. in afghanistan, a suicide bomber killed at least 17 people in a bathhouse near the pakistan border. the attacker blew himself up as muslim men gathered to bathe before friday prayers. more than 20 others were wounded. elsewhere, three nato soldiers were killed in separate roadside bombings. a total of nine coalition troops have died in afghanistan in the year's first week. the government of pakistan staved off political crisis today. the party known as m.q.m., a key part of the ruling coalition,

reversed its decision to quit the government and join the opposition. the leader of m.q.m. announced the move in karachi. >> mqm has made sacrifices in the past for the sake of the country and dem october-- democracy. and as of today once again when the country calls for sacrifice in view of the prime minister gestures for the democracy and national crisis we announce we will join the treasury benches. >> holman: the announcement came a day after prime minister raza yousuf gilani backed down on unpopular economic cuts, including a hike in fuel prices. a post office in washington, d.c., had a parcel scare today after similar episodes in maryland. no one was hurt when a small package ignited at a postal facility in the northwest section of washington. the fbi said the parcel resembled two that showed up thursday at maryland state

office buildings. a note inside criticized highway signs that urge people to report suspicious activity. npr, the national public radio organization, has begun a search to replace its top news editor. ellen weiss resigned thursday. a company review found she mishandled the firing of news analyst juan williams last october. he was dismissed over remarks he made on fox news channel. the incident has led to republican bills in congress to cut funding for public broadcasting. those are some of the day's major stories. now, back to judy. >> woodruff: and to south sudan, which begins voting sunday on separating from the north. special correspondent fred de sam lazaro reports on how one town is getting ready for the referendum. >> reporter: the town of bentiu lies in the heart of sudan in a state named unity; nothing could be farther from the mood here.

in the local stadium, a graduation ceremony yesterday for the new police class quickly turned into a rally for separation. ♪ no one doubts that the mostly black african south sudan will vote to secede from a nation long dominated by the arabic- speaking north. the two sides have been mired in decades of civil war. it ended with a peace treaty in 2005, which called for the secession vote and negotiations to share revenues from the oil fields. although they are located mostly in the south, oil revenues have flowed to the north. if the peace treaty holds, bentiu will be just inside the northern border of the new republic of south sudan. it's one reason the town has been overwhelmed by thousands of returning southerners, people

who had migrated to the more prosperous north in recent years. it's difficult to say exactly how many people have returned to bentiu and unity state, but the estimate of 100,000 is not exaggerated, according to relief agencies. that's almost a fifth of the population of this state. and everywhere you look, there's evidence of the struggle to provide for them. there's barely enough food, provided by international agencies. there's almost no shelter. at this makeshift parking lot, returnees like marisa spent hours hunting through the moving trucks for their few belongings. despite all the hardships of the trip, marisa, whose face bears the marks of traditional sudanese scarification, is glad to be back. >> ( translated ): in the north, we were treated very badly. we want to have a good life, and this is our land. the south is going to get independence. i can do something here, i can look for something from the government. we can survive on this land, we

can cultivate it. >> reporter: south sudan's semiautonomous government paid to bring back southerners living in the north, part of its campaign to win the separation vote. mary took up the offer for much more than patriotism >> people are coming here for voting on january 9. i always hoped to go back to the place that i was born. and in case a war happens, i will be safer in the south. >> reporter: many analysts have expressed concern that southerners living in the north could face a backlash if they vote to secede. for his part, sudan's dictator, omar al bashir, has promised to abide by the results, even as he campaigned in the southern capital juba for a vote for unity. but in unity state, there's only one place we found any support for a unified sudan-- the oilfields just outside bentiu. many of the workers here are from china, who buy most of sudan's oil.

but there also are workers from the north, who assumed the unity symbol. "we won't have a problem if the vote goes for separation," they said, "but we want unity, to stay as one nation." now, a show of hands for separation? >> ( translated ): we will have many changes. >> reporter: it's a tall order. south sudan would be one of the poorest nations on earth. paved roads and health clinics are almost nonexistent, and illiteracy is about 85%. add to that a continued fear of renewed violence. the crucial agreement on oil revenue sharing still languishes. and besides north/south tensions, there's also a long history of deadly violence among tribes in the south. but none of that concerns marisa right now. >> ( translated ): all i can think of is to vote.

>> reporter: not far from her, the polling places were preparing for that big event, with help from the international groups trying to ensure the election is conducted cleanly. polls will be open seven days, beginning sunday. results are expected to be announced by mid-february. >> woodruff: fred's report is a partnership with the pulitzer center on crisis reporting, and the undertold stories project at saint mary's university in minnesota. >> lehrer: next, the second of our conversations with republican members of the new house majority. last week, we talked with several democrats who lost their seats in november. tonight, we profile one of the 87 republican freshmen. ray suarez has our story. >> suarez: newly-minted congressman jim renacci arrived in washington earlier this week with his family. renacci represents a part of

northeast ohio ravaged by economic decline, as the newshour documented during the fall campaign. a cpa, former mayor of a small city, a former gm car dealer, renacci has only visited washington a few times in his life. he hopes to maintain that outsider status, even as he joins an elite group, a freshman class of 96 new representatives, almost all republicans. >> i plan on going home every weekend. it's only a 53-minute flight. it gives me an opportunity to get back to the district and understand their concerns and their problems. >> suarez: earlier this week, renacci and an aide headed to the capitol. >> is there another level? >> i didn't see it. >> suarez: there was time to unpack a few personal items and settle in before the onslaught of business. with the help of his wife and son, he had to find a place to live close to the capitol. >> the one upstairs is exactly the same. >> yes, i'll show it to you. we have one more closet. >> suarez: short-term lease quickly signed, it was time to run back to the office for briefings.

>> i would tend to advise supporting the amendment... >> suarez: with his new legislative director and chief of staff, representative renacci is preparing for the new session. there's a lot to learn about his new job. >> congratulations >> suarez: it ranges from the serious-- a new seat on the transportation and budget committees; the first meeting of the party conference led by the new speaker john boehner; all the way to the silly-- finding your face on the cover of a box of macaroni and cheese, courtesy of kraft foods. after a trip to the speaker's office to get credentials, he had a chance encounter about a sore subject while waiting to cross the street. >> i had a chevy dealership, too, mike and i talked about it. i lost mine. >> suarez: he owned a g.m. dealership for several years. >> my name is jim renacci. i have lived and worked in the community for 25 years. >> suarez: renacci says losing his dealership-- closed by g.m.

during the federal government- managed restructuring of the auto giant-- fueled his desire to run for congress. right after a bipartisan prayer service, representative renacci talked about his seat in the enormous freshman class. you're part of the largest freshman class in recent memory. one out of every five members is a freshman. so, is this time around going to be different? you guys are not going to wait your turn and sit in the corner. >> well, the interesting thing, it's going to be tough to get to know everybody's name. that's the first big challenge. but we're doing that little by little. and you're right-- we want to get started. the people have sent us here for a reason, and we're all looking forward to getting started. >> suarez: what is that reason? why did you do the big task of running, and why are you here now? what did you come to do? >> well, of course, for me personally, i was unhappy with the direction our country was going. but i also noticed when i

started running that most people in my 16th... ohio 16th district were not happy with the way the country was running, either. so it was easy for me to step up and say "i'm ready to make a difference. i'm concerned for my children, i'm concerned for my grandchildren. we can't keep spending ourselves into the debt situation we have right now." >> suarez: one of the first things out of the gate is an attempted repeal of the recently-passed health care plan. do you think that has any real chance, or is it just sort of a demonstration? >> well, you know what? it's going to be interesting. i know the people of the 16th... ohio 16th district were not happy with the bill. i know that the majority of the people there were not happy. and so, i'm going to come down here and make that vote for sure. but i do think that majority of america was not happy, either. it's a job-killing bill, let's face it. it's a job killing bill. and the problem we have today is we've got to create jobs. not the government; entrepreneurship has to create jobs. we got to get the government out of the way from the sense of

putting uncertainty and no predictability out there. and the cost situation that has occurred from the obama health care plan is a problem for business. >> suarez: well, the runaway spending part of the campaign caught fire with the public. but the congressional budget office says that the new health care plan will save $143 billion in the coming years. if you've come here to cut spending, how come you're also trying to repeal a bill that a bipartisan... or non-partisan scorekeeper says is going to save money? >> well, one things i've learned... and i'm a cpa too, so i'm going to be very interested in looking at the numbers and getting a better understanding. i think that sometimes in government, we... we use the numbers to the benefit of making them look a certain way. so we'll see. the goal here, though, is job creation. we're not doing this right now-- in the 16th district in ohio, but also throughout the country. this bill is a job-killing bill. and we have to get jobs back. jobs, jobs, jobs. the number one, two, and three most important things are jobs. we got to get those back.

>> suarez: in previous generations, men and women went back and said, "look at what i've brought to the district. the government's spending money, but it's spending money here, on you." is that going to be changed now that a congress has come to washington with the express purpose of saying "we don't want all that spending anymore." can you run and say, "look at what i didn't do for you?" >> i think people... i think people in this country understand now that we've got to get spending under control. and i think they've given us the task of coming here and get spending under control. and that includes the earmarks, and bringing those dollars back. so they're... i think they're looking forward to that. i think they're looking forward... look, in the... in the... whether it's a personal budget, a business budget, or the united states government, we've got to get spending under control. >> suarez: what can ohio do to compete with newly-emerging economies around the world? what part can you play in making ohio a job creator? >> we have a lot of entrepreneurs in ohio. we've had a lot of business people in ohio who said to me, "i'll employ more people, i'll open up a factory here, i'll

open up a business here. but i need certainty and predictability." we've got to bring that back to ohio. >> suarez: later that day, it was fellow ohioan-- new speaker john boehner-- who swore in renacci in a group, and then one on one. the two buckeyes set to govern, one as a seasoned leader and one as a brand new legislator hoping to make his mark. >> lehrer: and to the analysis of shields and brooks-- syndicated columnist mark shields and "new york times" columnist david brooks. here they are. a new congress, 112th congress. what should we expect, sir? >> drama. i mean we've got these guys, men and women coming in who have a strong belief. government is out of control. we're going to cut it back. and then they're going to come into a constitutional system which frustrates clear action and forces compromise. they're also going to confront a series of bills, most notably raising the debt limit which is actually going to force action and prevent gridlock to prevent a catastrophe. so they are going to face a

challenge, be true to their principleses but to actually compromise in a system that frustrates clear action. and while the leadership is trying to force them to make these compromises inside the congress people like glen beck and markkula vin, some of the talk show horss are goinging to be beating the crap out them. so this is going to be a very interesting few months. >> lehrer: very interesting few months, mark? >> i think it will be, jim. i don't disagree with david's assessment. in the spirit of comedy of the new session, the new year. >> lehrer: in other words, you agree. >> with the spirit of the gentlemen from pennsylvania, i do. i agree with him. i do think that the real tension and the real drama is going to be on john boehner's side of the aisle. i mean he's got his hands full. the democrats are probably more united than they've been. they are in the minority. that minority's role t is a lot easier to be united when are you in the minority but john boehner has problems with those tea party folks.

>> lehrer: the-- he is an example. i think the freshman republicans came here with the idea that to cooperate is to collaborate. to collaborate is to be open to charges of not being totally patriotic and committed. i mean i think that's the watchword of the tea parties. >> i'm not convinced of that yet. >> you take a like like rene-- cpa, i find they are quite implessed people. they have had car rears arc lot were state legislators, ran businesses they are not wild eyed people who were screaming at summer meetings about health care. they tend to have been leaders in their community. remember they were recruited to run for these offices and 2 was republicans in washington recruiting a lot of these people. and they recruited people they thought would be estimatable figures. so they do have strong beliefs but i am not sure

they will be totally 100% or not. >> when you get people on record as saying they will not vote to raise the debt ceiling,that's not negotiable, jim that means-- . >> lehrer: explain why that must be done? >> the debt ceiling limit is not about spending now. it's been obligations this country has. >> lehrer: already made. >> and already made. and you don't stop and say let's recame in-- re-examine it. that means every e-3 on the line in afghanistan and his or her family is cut off that means every military hospital. i mean it's not selective. it's border patrol. it's all the things they care about beyond social security and medicare. and that's the reality. >> it's default on the debt. as secretary geithner said it is catastrophic. >> he's right. >> they have to compromise. they came in and said we will cut $100 billion right away. and some of them said you

actually can't cut that much in the middle of the fiscal year. because government has made certain commitments. so here say practical reality. so we have to do that. so it is scaled back. but that tension, scaling back will inevitably that is what will happen. >> how can that be, boehner, for instance, speaker boehner has said well we're not goinging to raise the debt ceiling unless we have spending cuts to go along with it. how can you tie those in now. >> i've spoke tone some of the freshman who want to have the debt ceiling limit vote every six months. because they think this is leverage for them. and every time you vote for it we get more leverage. i wonder how much leverage it really is. because the mayor told me and other people we will not -- >> he is another leader in the house. >> we were not shut down the government so if you have already said we will in the end, how much leverage do they have. i'm curious about that. >> the health-care reform, there are clearly enough republican votes in the house to vote full repeal and they are going to do that in a few days, what

does it mean? >> it means several things. first of all, on the democratic side it means they have a second chance to sell to make a first impression. they obviously weren't able to convince people in the health-care bill but now when it means taking way things and benefitting, the republicans, that don't want to vote on individual elements in it, they want to vote for the whole thing. they don't want to vote whether are you have preexisting condition or let's repeal that or let's repeal lifetime limit, somebody can be dropped in the middle of an illness. no, we want the whole thing. >> keep kids up to the age of 26 on the family health plan. so you've got, it's kind of an interesting tension there. the republican does have the votes to repeal. but again, it's fear. david dryer the chairman of the rules committee says all we're do something keeping a promise. and the promise, they break a promise that they have just made, they are going to do this in a different way.

we will have committee hearings, votes, floor amendments hope. and you know, john bayne never his first press conference spent of the half the time on the defense explaining why the new rules weren't going to do it. >> they're going to do, it's called a closed rule meaning they are just going have the vote. >> that is the smartest way to do it. they are goinging to state their position, lay down a marker and it is not even going to get a vote in the senate so why waste weeks and weeks. make your position and move on to other stuff. i think that's the right thing to do. it is not going go anywhere but they will lay down a marker. their problem is first they haven't quite articulated the alternative. we are not going back to the status quo so what the alternative. they haven't settled on an alternative. this is going nothing where but there are things that are threatening the health-care bill from court decisions to decisions by employers. employers around the country are looking at the law and saying coy dump people off my rolls and save a lot of money. to things like they have high risk pools that so far

are supposed to have about 250,000 people enrolled in them. instead they have 8,000. so some of the projections are off. so the law is looking a little vulnerable. i think we will be talking about health care over the next five years, again in a serious fundamental way. >> lehrer: they could go at defunding some of these things could they not. >> exactly. >> lehrer: which is, the different than repeal approximating the whole thing which would kill it. >> those would be the real fights. and when they try and defund the execution of the administration of it, of the law itself. and just one thing on speaker boehner. suggested his week was a bad week because i thought of all the public figures in the country that i thought showed an understanding of the tone, ear deafness of what was going on in the country, the two best were andrew cuomo taking over as governor of new york and john boehner. >> a democrat and republicans. >> nothing self-congratulate tore. no high fives no victory

dance in the end zone, no big gala with high rollers. i thought he showed a very good tone. and a personal modesty. >> i would say since the election if you look at the two washington figures who have had excellent periods, i think boehner and obama have had excellent periods. >> obama went to 50% by going on vacation for two weeks. let's talk about the president, gene sperling today appointing as top economic. what do you think. >> i think is an excellent appointment because sperling is the kind of guy, a fountain of policy programs. there is nobody else like him. >> he is a talking -- >> he does talk a lot but if you wake him up and say i would like to help the middle class. will say i have nine am practices that could help you. i think he will be very useful. the wrap on him from the left is that he has is a bob rubin centrist who cares mostly about deficits. i think that is unfair. he is somewhat of a moderate

democrat but i think like a lot of people over the last couple of years as middle class wages have stagnated he's moved more in a direction of we've got to really do things to help middle class wages, a more activist posture. i think some of the takeover of the right wing democrats not quite fire. >> not quite fair. >> who are these right wing democrats. >> look around. >> with the three of them please come out of the volkswagen. >> where are the moderate democrats. >> gene sperling is a policy maven. i mean he is somebody who would rather make public policy than make money. and in that sense he's the quintessential democratic government servant. he really, i mean being in government and making policy is so much more exciting for him than walking on wall street with an 8, 9 figure. and he speaks in short decollar difficult sentences too. he will be good as a special person for this administration which is-- which has lacked that. and will bring a nonabrasive,

noncontroversial, nonego-driven presence to that office which i think will be a relief to many people who have been there. >> what about bill daly, white house chief of staff. >> something has happened in the democratic party, not the right wing democrats, in this case it is the left wing democrats who it isn't enough that somebody has spent his entire life since 1968 working for every democratic ticket, working democratic administrations, cheering al gore's presidential campaign, being committed to the party at every level and somehow-- . >> lehrer: democratic -- >> secretary of commerce, you know, somehow you have to have had an income stream that meets a good housekeeping seal of approval. he has had honorable and legal public life and personal life as far as i know. he's a grown-up. he's not-- it's a good sign in the sense that he's not an obama cultist. i mean he's not somebody who

comes out of the obama camp. he supported dan heintz o bama's opponent to the united states senate in 2004 in illinois and tells a wonderful story about he and his brother endorsed dan heintz, they got a personal note from barack obama saying i understand this completely. he's a friend of yours. i admire loyalty. when it is over, the primary is over i would like to talk to you because i really want your support and your counsel. i mean, in that sense, it's not jim baker. but itsee a step in the jim baker direction. ronald reagan did something that no president has ever done in my lifetime. he hired the man to run the last two campaigns against him. and somebody who had -- >> jim baker. >> knowledge of politics and press and congress and the town. and i think bill daly, while not jim bake certificate a step in the right direction. >> lehrer: do agree. >> a great five minutes, mark just endorsed people that work for goldman sachs and jpmorgan. i'm happy. no he's-- bill daly-- i

think is an excellent choice. ideology aside, managing the white house, one of the things i think needs to happen in the white house is when the president makes a decision t has to be followed all the way down the line. and in a white house that has been focused on capitol hill, sometimes that hasn't always happened to the frustration av lot of people who work there and i think he is the kind of guy who will simplify lines of authority and make it a well functioning, not that it isn't a well functioning white house but work on that problem which has sort of drifted. >> he is not a drama ing king either which is freshing. >> lehrer: thank you both. >> now on the eve of the first anniversary of the deadly earthquake in haiti, we begin a week of reports by jeffrey brown. jeff in port-au-prince and i talked with him earlier today. jeff, hello. you've been there in haiti

all week t is a year after the earthquake what does it look like? give us a sense of that. >> well, hello, judy, a year later, unfortunately one has to say that for the most part it doesn't look different enough. it certainly doesn't look different enough for the people living hear that of with a been able to talk to. from the minute you get out of the airport there are estimate a large tent camp that you see. as you travel around you see them all over the place. even right behind me is an example where people who have lost their homes find whatever public land is available and create these little tent communities. some of them quite small. some of them very large. you can drive around and a lot of the debris in the city has been cleared. so it is easier to get around. but you will come across a street, you might see one building intact and then another one, and many of them completely destroyed. we saw some building downtown in the so-called iron market, a famous old marketplace where there is some reduction -- reconstruction. but that is clearly an unusual project in anything we've seen.

but for most people this is incredibly frustrating. yesterday i was in one of the-- in one of the tent camps with a man who has five people living with him in this incredibly small, hot, constructed out of canvas and metal, whatever cofind. and he said this is just gone on too long. we don't see enough happening. and there is a fear here that things aren't changing and may not change. >> lehrer: . >> woodruff: another big part of the story post earthquake is the cholera epidemic. are they getting under control? >> brown: well cholera you add on top of all the other problems here. it is largely a rural phenomenon and we spent a couple of remarkable days, about three hours from port-au-prince up in the mountains and in the river valley where the outbreak began. it is heart breaking to see because you hear the stories of people who just weren't able to get to a treatment center in time. and the tragedy of this

outbreak in part is that cholera is so treatable. you just need rehydration and anti-biotics. and most people can be taken care of. but the problem is so many people live out in rural areas far from treatment centers. so we went to some of these centers. we also went along with people who were trying to do public awareness campaigns to get out to the villages to let people know about sanitation, about helping them with clean water. are they getting under control? there are some signs that things are getting a little bit better. there is a question of whether this may have peaked in some area. but there are still great fears that it is spreading to further areas to the north and south in the country. and there is also continuing questions about what happens in the city here in port-au-prince. one of the great fears is whether it spreads into this overpopulated city. and we were in one of the city's main slums the other day where again, they are trying this public awareness. they are trying to get clean water into places like that.

and into these tent camps to try to control it. >> woodruff: and jeff, of course, all of this is taking place against the backdrop of political turmoil. they had an election for president in the fall. but the results are disputed. how much is that adding to the sense of chaos and uncertainty there? >> well, that is the big current issue here and current turmoil and yes, it adds all on top of the one year later. there were questions about what they should go ahead with it. they did go ahead with it. there were all kinds of allegations of fraud there was violence in the aftermath of that shut this city down a couple of days last month in december. just this week there has been a team from the oas, the organization of american states, a verification team called in by president preval to take a look at what happened in november's election. now we talked to somebody knowledgeable of that, with that investigation and were told that yes, indeed, they found all kinds of problems there. they found examples of

ballot stuffing, mostly about tampering with with the tally sheets that you find at every poll so that you can tamper with it after the votes have been cast. now that team is supposed to, we're told, issue its report on sunday. so that will be the next step here. then the government has to figure out how to go ahead. there is supposed to be a runoff as early as next week. that clearly will not be happening. now they're talking about doing it perhaps in february. the president, president preval is deeply unpopular here but he's talking about staying in power until may. if he a noufernss that, that will cause all kinds of more unrest. there is the potential for continuing political turmoil here in the days ahead, definitely. >> well, jeff, you have several reports to come and we're looking forward to seeing and hearing all of those. the first one next monday is on cholera. thank you. >> okay. thanks, judy. i will see you next week.

>> lehrer: louisiana will step up testing and monitoring >> lehrer: and finally tonight, testing oysters on the louisiana coast. our story is part of our series "newshour connect," showcasing public media reporting around the country. bill rodman reports for louisiana public broadcasting and the gulf coast consortium of public broadcasters. >> while dhh had always tested oyster harvest areas for bacteria, the spill, of course, made oil an issue. >> what we found is that in all the oysters we've tested and all the seafood we've tested, any level of hydrocarbons which would indicate the oil had reached the oysters or the seafood was at levels that would not impact human health. >> reporter: working with noaa and the food and drug administration, the louisiana department of health and hospitals adopted a two-tiered approach for

testing oysters and other seafood for hydrocarbons. the first part being sensory testing. >> let me get you to open one up for me. >> reporter: gary la pinto is the dhh seafood program manager. and a noaa and fda-trained and certified sensoree seafood tester. >> he begins with a clearing of the nasal passages. >> i need to you open one up with, open me one up. a good smell of oysters honestly smells like corn t really does. the oil smell is a real strong, especially the crude oil. >> reporter: the purpose of the smell test is to catch any suspicious seafood at the dock or at the first processor. so that if there is a potential problem, it can be identified immediately and the oysters can be flagged. >> the oil from the oil spill is unrefined. it's natural and it is will into your nasal passages instantly.

it is really easy to pick up. a lighter taint is not as bad but you will pick up some nasal burning. once again, i'm not picking up anything. and i mean these so far everything that we've done would have passed. we have not failed a load in the entire summer. >> reporter: the next stage is chemical testing. >> and so we start with the edible oyster tissue. we grind it into a fine paste. and then we load it into these stainless steel extraction vessels here for extraction with methylnen chloride. >> the oyster samples are tested for pahs that occur in oil. pahs are of concern because some compounds have been found to cause cancer. birth defects and cellular mew says-- mutation. this pah testing is mirrored by both federal and state

contracted independent laboratories. and the government has established levels that pose a threat to humans. >> this is the initial extract with with the methylene chloride in the oyster tissue so all traces are in this solution. >> reporter: tests on this oyster solution would show up to 12 different components of pah contaminants. so far tests have found all the levels to be within what the fda deems safe for human consumption. >> this is the most testinging that has ever occurred for hydrocarbons in the history of louisiana. so we were convinced that even though the oil might have reached the oyster beds it wasn't at a level that would impact anyone's health. >> with oysters testing safe to eat and the amount of open oyster fishing water, nearly equal to what it was prior to the spill, the situation for oyster fisherman is not all you would expect.

>> oystermen are recovering but still face obstacles. >> oh, man, we dropped about 75%. now it's starting to come back a little bit. i would say we're down about 50% right now. >> reporter: buddy davey of buddy's seafood has been in the oyster fishing and processing business for 50 years. he sa what has hurt him the most is public perception. nowadays he hopes rigorous testing procedures will build confidence. louisiana oil stermen have also faced other challenges. in the attempt to push the oil out of the estuaries the state opened several fresh water diversions, full throttle. many oysterman claim this action has killed large areas of oyster beds. while there are large areas that have had little to no impact, other oyster bed area as long the coast are reporting more fall iterates as high as 80%.

in this bay one of louisiana's most productive oyster fisheries, some beds on the eastern side of the bay are at 60% dead. although it's not clear yet if this is due to oil or low sal init. >> to address the problem,the governor's office has set up a new advisory board to look into claims from oystermen that the fresh water has harmed their industry. and says bp will be held accountable for any losses they may have experienced. >> louisiana >> lehrer: louisiana will step up testing and monitoring seafood from the gulf. they'll use $18 million from oil company b.p. to test 400 samples a month for the next 20 years. >> woodruff: again, the major developments of the day: unemployment fell in december to the lowest level in 19 months, but employers hired fewer workers than expected. and house republicans set the stage for a vote on repealing health care reform next week. and to kwame holman for what's

on the newshour online. kwame. >> holman: paul solman weighs in on how today's jobs numbers fit into the larger labor picture on his "making sense" page. our team in haiti has filed video dispatches on the rundown blog. up now is jeff's interview with the u.s. ambassador, kenneth merten. plus on "art beat," find a preview of the 2011 theater season with "new york times" chief theater critic ben brantley. all that and more is on our web site, newshour.pbs.org. judy. >> woodruff: and that's the newshour for tonight. on monday, we'll look at the independence vote in south sudan. i'm judy woodruff. >> lehrer: and i'm jim lehrer. "washington week" can be seen later this evening on most pbs stations. we'll see you online, and again here monday evening. have a nice weekend. thank you and good night. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by:

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